Open Early at 3am
by singabella
Summary: The Cullens and a day of Black Friday shopping. What could happen?


A/N The timeline for this story is Post Eclipse but before Breaking Dawn. The wedding is actually taking place around Christmas instead of before Bella's birthday in August. Also, I suppose it's not quite the right time to publish a Black Friday story, but I was busy on a couple other stories in November and just didn't have the chance to get this one written. I figure that this would be a nice addition for the new year.

* * *

It was Thanksgiving Day and I had woken up early to prepare a nice meal for Charlie and myself. I was planning on eating our meal for lunch because Alice had called last night to ask Charlie if I could spend tonight over with them. Her plan was for us to go shopping tomorrow, the day known to all as Black Friday. I was tired just thinking about what Black Friday shopping with Alice might constitute.

I took the thawed turkey out of the refrigerator and followed the instructions that were presented to me within the packaging. I placed the turkey in the oven so that it could cook for a few hours and hopefully be ready by lunchtime.

I heard Charlie come downstairs and turn on the television, so I walked into the living room.

"Morning, dad," I greeted.

"Morning," Charlie responded with a wave of acknowledgement.

He turned the television on to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and watched that for a while. It was too early in the day for football games to start. I'm sure that was one of the reasons that he didn't mind me leaving to go over to the Cullen's house after lunch. He planned to watch as many football games as he could today. I think he actually had plans to go over to Billy Black's house and watch them there.

After watching a few minutes of the parade with Charlie, I got up and went back into the kitchen to start preparing the rest of the food. I wanted to make a large feast even though it was just the two of us here. I figured that it would give Charlie a reason to be eating a well-balanced diet while I was staying over at the Cullen's house.

Three hours and several dishes later, Charlie and I were sitting down at the kitchen table with plates full of food. Our conversation was limited due to Charlie being engrossed with trying to fork the food into his mouth. It was probably better this way since I couldn't imagine what I might say if Charlie went the route of many households and decided that we needed to share what we were thankful for this year.

There were several things that I was thankful for. I was thankful that I managed to get to Edward alive before he had a chance to step out into the sunlight while in Italy. I was thankful that Victoria had been killed and I no longer had her along with an army of newborn vampires stalking me. I suppose I was also thankful that Jacob knew about my engagement to Edward. Of course, I couldn't tell Charlie any of these things without leaving out a lot of information that he just doesn't need to know.

"So Bells," Charlie finally spoke after he finished his second plate of food, "when are you planning to go over to the Cullen's house?"

I swallowed the food in my mouth before replying. "Alice said something about me coming over after lunch if that's okay with you?" I finished with a question.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to head over to Billy's in a few minutes to catch the game," Charlie responded.

I stood up from the table and took my empty plate over to the sink to begin washing the dirty dishes. Charlie got up and brought his plate over to me so that I could wash it as well. I was almost done with cleaning the dishes when Charlie came back into the kitchen as he was putting his jacket on.

"Bells, I'm heading over to Billy's if you need me," he said. "Have fun this weekend. I guess I'll see you back here on Sunday."

"That's the plan," I confirmed.

"Be careful when you're out shopping tomorrow," Charlie told me.

"Sure, sure," I replied back.

I watched as he walked out of the kitchen and heard the front door open and close. I finished cleaning the last of the dishes and dried my hands off. I walked upstairs in order to pack a bag for the weekend.

As I opened the door to my bedroom, I saw Alice standing in the middle of my room with a packed bag lying on the bed beside her.

"Are you ready to go?" Alice asked.

"Alice, you know that I can pack my clothes," I told her.

"Of course you can pack your clothes," Alice said, "but I do it better."

I rolled my eyes and went to add my toiletry bag to everything else Alice had already packed. I just hoped there were some comfortable clothes in there. Knowing Alice, she might take Black Friday shopping to a whole new level and try to buy a whole new wardrobe for every single person in the Cullen household as well as me.

"Got everything?" Alice asked.

"You should know," I replied.

"Okay, great," Alice said. "Let's go."

Alice grabbed my bag and ushered me down the stairs as fast as I was humanly capable of going without tripping and falling halfway down. I made it down the stairs and went out the front door waiting on Alice to follow me out so I could close and lock it. Of course, Alice was out of the door before I could completely turn back to face it.

After quickly locking up, I hopped into Alice's yellow Porsche and we drove off toward her house. With the way all of the Cullen members drive, we were pulling up into the garage of their house within minutes of leaving my house.

I didn't even have time to open my door before it was opened for me. Edward was standing before me in all of his glory. I quickly undid my seatbelt and accepted his proffered hand to get out of the car.

"Welcome home," Edward said.

I smiled up into his butterscotch eyes. "I like the sound of that," I replied before standing up on my toes to kiss him.

Edward gently wrapped his arms around me as we continued kissing. I was completely lost to everything going on around me. All I could think about and focus on was being with my fiancé.

"Come on you two," Alice chided, abruptly bringing us back to the present.

Edward pulled away and wrapped an arm around my waist as we headed inside the house. He managed to grab my overnight bag at some point during all of this, but I just accepted the fact that my mind wasn't available to pay attention to little things like that.

The rest of the family were gathered in the living room as we walked in. Emmett and Jasper were involved in a heated battle of Halo3 on the Xbox. Rosalie was sitting in one of the armchairs looking through a fashion magazine. Esme and Carlisle were sitting together on the sofa talking quietly to each other. Edward left me there to go put my overnight bag in his room.

I walked over to the nearest chair and sat down watching the Xbox battle. Alice settled herself down on the sofa next to Esme and began perusing through newspaper advertisements for tomorrow's big shopping trip. Edward came down and easily lifted me up off the chair where I was sitting so he could sit down first with me in his lap.

Apparently, Jasper managed to kill Emmett in the video game. Emmett swore and lunged for Jasper, who wasn't quite prepared for the attack. Jasper through his controller away from him as he began wrestling with Emmett. Unfortunately, the controller was thrown through the television screen. Both boys froze when they heard the crash.

Esme had ceased talking to her husband and looked disapprovingly at the two of them. "You two better clean up this mess right now. I expect both of you to go buy a replacement for what you have broken tomorrow. From now on, if you two want to behave like children, then you better go outside and away from the house to do so."

"Yes, mom," Emmett and Jasper spoke with their heads bowed.

"Good news," Alice said. "Walmart has several televisions on sale tomorrow. If we can get there before the crowd, I bet we can get our hands on one to replace this one with."

"Walmart?" Rosalie said disgustedly.

"I'm not a fan of going there either," Alice replied, "but they do have some really good deals."

"Ugh, you guys go there and drop me off at the mall," Rosalie said.

"What time do these places open?" Edward asked.

"The earliest I saw was 3 am," Alice said excitedly. "That's only in another eight hours!"

"Oh no," I moaned into Edward's shirt.

"Bella, dear," Esme spoke kindly, "why don't you come into the kitchen and have something to eat. Carlisle picked up your favorite from that Italian restaurant in Port Angeles."

I nodded and got up from Edward's lap. Edward followed me into the kitchen as I sat down on one of the stools. Esme placed a plate full of food right in front of me as Edward sat down beside me at the counter.

I ate a good portion of my meal before pushing the plate away. I don't think I could eat another bite. Edward placed what was left of my food into a small container and put it in the refrigerator for leftovers some other time. Alice came bouncing into the kitchen with excitement showing on her face.

"Okay, I have a plan ready for us," Alice told us.

"Alice, be reasonable," Edward said.

I looked back and forth between the two of them. "Okay, what's your plan," I sighed.

"We need to get a television from either Walmart or Best Buy," Alice said. "Best Buy opens at three, so we need to have everyone there to give us the best chance to grab one before they're gone. I can't see if this will work or not, so I guess one of those dogs must be planning on being there at the same time."

"They have names, Alice," I grumbled.

"Anyway, if Best Buy is a scrub," Alice continued, "we'll need to be over at Walmart by five. I'm pretty sure that we can out-maneuver anyone in that store and grab a tv. After the tv is taken care of, we'll go over to the mall and begin the real shopping excursion."

"Alice, how long are you going to keep me out?" I whined.

"At least until all the doorbusters are over, so maybe about one or two in the afternoon," Alice answered.

"That's almost twelve hours of shopping!" I exclaimed. "No, absolutely not!"

"I have to put my foot down and agree with Bella," Edward finally spoke up putting his arm around me. "You will not keep my future wife out that long after she's already missed out on her sleep."

"Bella's going to go to bed now, so that she doesn't miss out on any sleep," Alice countered.

"Fine, but I still get the final say as to when Bella gets to come home tomorrow," Edward said.

I looked at both of them and didn't respond. I knew that I had lost the battle for tomorrow's shopping ordeal.

Edward led me out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room. I noticed as I walked by that the commotion had died down in the living room since the time I left to go have some dinner. Emmett and Jasper had left, probably to go wrestle outside. Rosalie was still reading a magazine. Esme and Carlisle were also back to having their conversation before everything happened.

My overnight bag was sitting on his bed as we walked into the room. I grabbed my toiletry bag and looked through to find my pajama set to change into. I kept looking through the clothes that were in the bag and couldn't find my pajamas that I had been wearing.

"What are you looking for?" Edward asked.

"I can't find my pajamas," I told him still rummaging through the packed clothing.

Edward just sat down on his sofa with an amused expression on his face. I made a face at him before turning back to the clothes. I just turned m bag upside down and let everything fall out of it. I think I might have heard a soft chuckle behind me, but I chose to ignore it. I picked up every piece of clothing, grimacing at what Alice had packed. I knew I should have double-checked everything before we left the house.

I was down to the last piece of clothing, which was something silky that I didn't recognize. I held it up to see what it was and out unfurled a silk nightgown in a lovely shade of midnight blue. I know this didn't come out of my closet.

"Alice!" I called.

Alice appeared seconds later. I held up the nightgown for her to see. "This isn't mine," I told her.

"Yes, it is," Alice said. "I bought it for you about a week ago and thought that it would be great to keep something like that over here when you're staying over with Edward."

"But, I don't wear nightgowns," I sputtered trying to come up with a good argument.

"Well, I guess it's wear the nightgown or go naked tonight," Alice said smiling smugly. "Edward won't mind either way, I'm sure."

"You really don't have to bring me up in this, Alice," Edward said from the sofa.

"It's for your own benefit, you know," Alice told him winking before she left the room.

"Stupid annoying pixie vampire," I grumbled.

"You can always wear some of my clothes if you wish," Edward said coming up behind me to wrap his arms around my waist.

"As good as that might sound right now," I began, "I bet Alice would just get me back for it tomorrow."

Edward kissed my cheek quickly before shooing me into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I was loosing valuable sleeping time with every delay I made.

I took my human moment and brushed my teeth before getting changed for bed. As I put on the nightgown, I was afraid of how I might look in one. I've never worn a gown before, unless you count when I was five. This was something that made me feel all grown up. I could almost imagine walking back into the bedroom as Mrs. Edward Cullen. I shook my head to rid myself of those thoughts. I still felt like I was getting married too early. The wedding was only weeks away and I still get nervous thinking about it.

Part of me was nervous about what people might think about us getting married so early in life, since everyone thought that Edward was roughly the same age as me. The other, much larger, part of me was nervous for our wedding night. Edward had agreed to try that night and I worried about meeting his expectations. I guess it was silly to think of things like that, but I wanted to be perfect for him in every way I could.

I didn't glance in the mirror to see how I looked with the gown on. I didn't want to be disappointed by my reflection in the mirror. I just brushed my hair out and walked out of the bathroom.

All the lights were turned out in the bedroom, so I couldn't see where Edward was at first. I heard a gasp from somewhere in front of me.

"Edward?" I asked into the dark room.

"I'm by the bed," Edward's voice said from the dark.

My eyes were finally starting to adjust in the darkness. I could barely make out Edward's tall figure standing near the large bed in his room. I walked closer to him slowly since I still couldn't see well enough in the darkness to avoid tripping over something in the floor.

When I was finally standing in front of him, I asked, "So, how do I look?"

"Beautiful as always," Edward replied before wrapping his arms around me and placing me in bed.

"You're just biased," I told him as I pulled the covers up around me.

The covers were swiftly ripped off of me. I sat up in shock looking at Edward questionably.

"You have no concept of how beautiful you really are, do you?" Edward asked rhetorically. "Maybe I should tell you how hard it is for me to resist you."

I raised one eyebrow at him. "I think it's harder for me to resist you. I'm always the one you're restraining, not the other way around."

Edward leaned down to kiss my neck as he shook his head in disagreement with me. "I have to fight off every guy that comes within ten yards of you. Tell me how that is not tempting."

I gasped as he lowered me back onto the bed and began kissing up to my ear. "They.. don't... even... know... me," I managed to get out somewhat breathlessly.

"Jacob knows you," Edward countered moving from my earlobe to my jawline.

"I don't love Jacob like that," I told him. "I only want to be with you."

Edward looked into my eyes for a moment before kissing me fully on the lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him even closer to me. My hands found their way into his bronze locks and gripped them tightly. Edward seemed to be enjoying this moment as much as I was because he hadn't broken away from me yet. He was still maintaining control over himself, but I could tell that he was letting go of his self-imposed boundaries a little.

While one of his arms was holding his body off of me so that he wouldn't crush me with his weight, his other free hand was ghosting its way down my body. He started at my shoulder and let his fingers roam down my arm before sliding over to the side of my chest. Edward didn't try to touch me anywhere that he would consider inappropriate. Instead, he continued to make his way down the side of my body to my hip. He rubbed a few small circles in it before moving down my leg until he reached my ankle. Edward then moved his hand back up my leg underneath the floor-length gown until he was to my knee. He grasped my leg behind the knee and hiked it around his hip. I gasped as I realized what this might look like to one of his family members, should they decide to barge into the room.

I tried to bring him even closer to me, but I could tell that he had drawn the line for tonight as his kisses became less urgent. His hand lowered my leg back to the bed and I tried to hold onto him as tightly as I could to keep him from moving away.

Of course, Edward easily broke my grasp and chuckled lightly at the pout on my face. "That's enough practicing for tonight, love," he said. "Besides, you need your rest for tomorrow."

"You can always hold me hostage here and protect me from Alice," I attempted.

Edward laughed. "I'll do my best to protect you from Alice tomorrow," he promised. "And I can't wait to hold you hostage every day for the rest of eternity."

"Me, too," I agreed sleepily.

Edward kissed my forehead before humming my lullaby. I was asleep within minutes.

I woke up from my slumber a little disoriented. It took me a moment to realize that the reason I awoke was from some soft talking coming from near the doorway. I rubbed my eyes to clear the sleepiness. When I became more awake, I sat up in bed and looked toward the doorway to see Edward and Alice involved in the midst of a discussion or argument. It was hard to tell the difference with their whispered voices.

"No, Alice," Edward hissed quietly, "Bella needs to sleep."

"Oh, come on," Alice said back. "Bella can sleep later. We need to get an early start in order to get the best deals today."

"Guys, you can stop arguing over me. I'm awake," I called out from my spot on the bed.

"Great!" Alice practically sang. "Why don't you get ready to go shopping?"

"What time is it anyway?" I asked seeing that it was still dark outside.

"One-thirty," Alice replied.

It took me a moment to understand her response. "One-thirty?!" I exclaimed.

"Of course," Alice said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I'll have your clothes picked out before you're out of the shower so hurry up."

I grumbled a little but walked toward the bathroom to take a shower because Alice always gets her way. Edward looked a little unhappy, but even he wouldn't be able to fight Alice when it came to shopping.

I took a quick shower that helped me wake up a little more. I had just finished wrapping a towel around myself when the door to the bathroom burst open. I shrieked and quickly made sure everything was covered up.

"Sorry," Alice said from the doorway.

She only looked a little apologetic. I could hear laughter coming from downstairs and felt my face heat up in embarrassment. I knew everyone in the house had heard what happened.

"I brought your clothes, so you could go ahead and get changed," Alice told me before leaving the bathroom just as quickly.

I looked at the clothes Alice had picked out with my breath held since I was unsure what she might choose for me to wear. I was hoping it was something comfortable and not designer. I ended up having a little bit of both worlds for me to wear today. Alice picked out some designer dark-washed skinny jeans along with a nice blue shirt. On the plus side, I did get a very warm and comfortable looking hoody as well as my sneakers. I had a feeling Edward might have pressured her a bit with the shoes. There was no way I would be able to make it through a full day of shopping in heels without breaking a leg.

I quickly got dressed and brushed through my tangled hair. Soon, I was on my way downstairs to see where the rest of the family was.

When I made it into the living room, I saw everyone gathered around the computer. They were conferring with one another, but their voices were too low for me to really hear what they were saying.

"Good morning, Bella," Carlisle greeted me warmly.

Before I could say anything to the father figure in the Cullen household, Alice had grabbed my arm and was steering me out the door. I was placed in the passenger seat of Edward's Volvo. Edward was already behind the wheel, and Alice had hopped into the back. Behind us was the Jeep with Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper.

Edward started the car and we were racing down the road toward our first shopping destination. We reached Best Buy within about ten minutes. Even before we found a parking spot, I could see the lines of people wrapped around the building waiting for the store to open.

Edward parked his car in an open spot and Emmett pulled in right beside him. We all got out of the vehicles and walked toward the back of the line. When we were closer to the front doors, I could see tents set up out front.

"People camped out all night?" I asked in disbelief.

Edward nodded, "Some of them have even been here since noon yesterday."

"But it's cold outside," I stated. This was definitely one of our colder days in Washington.

"They just wear extra layers of clothing," Alice said from beside me. "A few of them have their tents stocked with coffee and heavy blankets."

"Wow," I said taking it all in.

We walked around the building until we found the back of the line. It was near the loading docks at the very back of the building.

Alice looked around and then closed her eyes trying to see into the future. "I have an idea," she said with a smile after she opened her eyes once again.

"Alice, we'd be risking exposure," Edward chided.

"No, everything will work out just fine," Alice told him. "Just look in my head and see. This is the only sure way that we'll be able to grab the television that we need to replace the broken one."

Edward groaned a little but didn't say anything to contradict her.

Alice called Emmett over to them from where he had been scoping out the boxes in the loading area. I couldn't hear their conversation because they were speaking too fast and low for me to understand any of it. Emmett had a wide grin on his face and nodded before turning to Jasper.

"What's going on?" I asked to anyone who would listen.

Edward whispered in my ear, "Emmett and Jasper are going to run through the loading dock a few minutes before three, so they can get into the store before everyone else floods it. Once they're inside the store, Emmett is going to head for the televisions and Jasper will be helping to control anyone's emotions who might notice anything unusual."

"Will that work?" I questioned.

"Alice saw it working," Edward replied with a shrug.

"How much longer do we have to wait?"

"About five more minutes," Edward replied.

I was getting colder by the minute standing out here in the frigid weather. Edward must have noticed me shiver, because his eyes tightened a bit. His body heat wouldn't really help me warm up, since he was always cold to the touch. Instead, he used his hands to create some friction while rubbing them up and down my arms. It helped a little, but I was ready to be inside a warm store.

Luckily, the crowd started moving a few minutes later. I looked around and saw that Emmett and Jasper were no longer standing with the rest of us. I guess they were making their way around the store trying to find the television they needed.

The crowd in front of us moved slowly, but soon the whole family was inside the warm building. Edward steered me through the throng of people. I'm guessing he knew where Emmett and Jasper were in the store because as much as I craned my neck to see them, I couldn't really see through the crowds in the store.

We caught up to them in the sound system section of the store. Emmett was carrying a huge television that would cover half their wall at home in his arms. He seemed to be trying to pretend that it was heavy, but it wasn't working well for him.

"Emmett, you might want to put that on a cart like a normal human," I whispered to him.

Emmett looked around trying to find one quickly, but there wasn't any located near us. Soon, Alice came screeching to a halt in front of us with one of the carts.

"Thanks," Emmett said as he placed the television on it.

I turned around to find Jasper and Edward in a deep discussion over entertainment systems.

"If we have to buy a new television, we might as well update the sound system," Jasper told Edward.

"We already have one though," Edward tried to reason.

"Throw the old one out," Rosalie put in. "We should just get the new and improved version."

Rosalie looked over at me, "I don't suppose we could throw your truck out and buy you something new and shiny?"

I glared at her. "I'm keeping my truck. Don't knock it."

Everyone sighed a collective sigh at that remark. I knew they all wanted me to get rid of the rusty piece of scrap metal, but I really did love my truck. I'll just try not to complain too much when it dies and they end up buying me something expensive to replace it.

Jasper ended up picking out the most expensive entertainment system that was available in the store and put it on the cart with the television. Emmett carefully rolled the items to the checkout lane. The store was well organized, so checking out didn't take us very long. We were soon rolling our items over to Emmett's Jeep.

Once the Jeep was packed, everyone got back into the two vehicles and we started driving to our next destination. I wasn't sure what was on the agenda for today, so I sat back and waited to see where we were headed.

A few minutes later, we turned into the Walmart parking lot.

I looked to the backseat at Alice. "Walmart?"

"I know, I know," Alice said holding her hands up in surrender. "Rose refuses to come inside with us, so she'll stay with the Jeep. However, they do have a great deal on some Blu-Ray DVDs that I want to take advantage of."

"We're going to have to walk a mile," I murmured as I looked around the very full parking lot.

I saw Emmett pull his Jeep into a free spot near the back of the lot. Edward had turned to the right and was driving up one of the lanes that would lead us directly to the automatic doors.

"We should just go back and park near Emmett," I told him. "There's no way we're going to find a close spot near the door."

"Never bet against Alice," Edward spoke softly to me.

I guess he had read her mind and knew what he was doing. I shrugged and just waited to see where we would end up walking from. I saw a man sitting in the back of his pickup truck in the first non-handicapped parking space in front of the doors.

Edward pulled up alongside the truck and put the car in park as he got out of the car. I just watched him wondering what was going on. Edward and the man talked back and forth for a couple minutes before Edward reached to get his wallet out. I saw him hand the man a few bills and the man nodded and grinned widely before hopping out of the back of his truck.

Edward returned to the car and backed up enough to allow this man to back out of his parking spot. Once the man had vacated the spot, Edward swung in easily. I think my mouth was hanging open during all of this.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Alice saw the man sitting in the back of his truck," Edward began explaining as we all got out of the car. "The man got here late last night and parked in that spot. He didn't care a bit about shopping today. He was only interested in trying to make some money off of someone who would be willing to pay for that parking spot."

"You have got to be kidding me," I said even though I knew Edward wasn't lying about anything he just told me. "So how much did you end up giving to him?"

"You probably don't want to know," Edward answered while wrapping his arm around my waist.

Everyone who was coming into the store had already made it inside before us. We found them standing near the entrance looking at the location where there should be shopping carts. I guess they ran out because there wasn't a single one to be found.

Edward led me toward the back of the store where all the movies were kept. Jasper was following behind us while Emmett and Alice were going around the store trying to find an empty shopping cart to use.

We had just reached the section where all the movies were when I heard some squealing and cheering coming from nearby. I looked around trying to find where it was coming from and gasped as I saw what it was.

Emmett had found a shopping cart only it wasn't a normal one. It was one of those with the big plastic car up front for children. Alice was sitting in the spot for the child pretending to steer the shopping cart while Emmett was racing her through the store. I watched as Emmett quickly jerked the shopping cart away from a small boy who had wandered into the aisle. The boy was unharmed, but Emmett must have scared him because the boy began wailing at the top of his lungs.

The mother of the boy ran over to see what was wrong and sent a scorching glare to Emmett, who had finally come to a stop beside the rest of us. Emmett just smiled sheepishly and waved at her before turning back to us with a game face on. Alice climbed out of the shopping cart and jumped up and down clapping her hands.

I watched as they all began grabbing movies that were on sale. I didn't want to get in the middle of anything, so I stood behind them where I wouldn't be in their way. Of course, I never could go completely unnoticed by them.

"Bella, aren't there any movies that you want?" Jasper asked.

"Um, I don't really need any movies," I said. I really didn't want them spending money on me and it's not like Charlie even has a DVD player at home.

Jasper smiled knowingly at me. I was sure that he was trying to get a read on my emotions, so I tried my best to be calm and content. It probably didn't work because Edward looked over at me with a frown on his face.

Everyone had filled the shopping cart with their movie picks, so I thought we would be able to leave. However, Edward grabbed me around the waist and pulled me in front of the movie section.

"We're not leaving until you've picked out a few movies that you either like or want to see," he told me.

I tried to pull away but his hand was firmly attached around me leaving no room for me to escape.

I sighed and relented, "Okay."

I looked over the titles in front of me. "Harry Potter?"

"Alice picked up all of those," Edward replied. "She claims that one of the characters in a couple of those movies resembles me."

"Lord of the Rings?"

"Jasper loves the battle scenes."

"Underworld?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Emmett likes to watch the vampires and werewolves fighting each other."

"Okay, what did you pick out?" I asked. I was running out of choices.

"James Bond."

"Really?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"He's an international spy who gets to drive great cars and fight bad guys. What's not to like?"

"You seem to have forgotten about his beautiful conquests."

Edward shook his head, "I would never envy him the women. After all, I have you."

I rolled my eyes at that and spotted what I wanted. "Chronicles of Narnia," I said holding each DVD up for him to see.

"Good choice," Edward replied. "Now let's head out."

The checkout lines were actually pretty decent here, too. I was amazed because Walmart is notorious for having to wait almost an hour before you can ring up your items.

Emmett and Jasper were carrying all of the bags while Alice pushed the shopping cart to the place where it could be returned. Before we made it there, a lady came up and snatched the cart right out of Alice's hands. All of our faces dropped open in shock over the nerve of that woman.

Before Alice could retaliate, Edward restrained her and forced her to continue walking toward the exit with everyone else. I sighed in relief because I really didn't want to get kicked out of the store or end up on tonight's news report. I could just imagine Charlie's face if he heard about an incident like that happening.

We walked out to Edward's car and put all the bags in the trunk. Emmett and Jasper walked at a brisk pace back to where Emmett had parked while we all got back into the Volvo.

"Where to?" I asked hoping the answer was home.

"The mall of course!" Alice exclaimed.

I groaned at the idea of going to the mall with Alice after I've already been up for several hours. I could just imagine the amount of walking I might have to do.

Soon we were pulling up in front of the mall. Edward had barely put the car in park before Alice had my door open and was dragging me inside with Rosalie following closely behind us.

I think I was forced into nearly every store in the mall. Every shop we stopped in, Alice or Rose would push me into the dressing room. I was then handed clothes to try on. I stopped arguing over all of it because it was just a waste of my breath. Neither one of them were really paying much attention to my arguments. I just went along with it and tried to ignore how much money was being spent on me today.

I think we had covered almost all of the stores when my stomach rumbled loudly. Before Alice even had a chance to apologize for forgetting that I needed food, Edward was standing before me with some hot chocolate and a pastry.

I walked over to a bench and relaxed for a few minutes while I ate. My feet were sore from walking so much and I was ready to crawl back into bed for some much needed sleep. When I finished, I threw the trash away and was again hauled back into the shopping madness.

The good thing is that this time Edward was coming along with us. I was happy that I could have him as support against the shopping fanatics. Well, that was until we walked into Victoria's Secret.

Edward grimaced as every woman in that store turned to stare at him. I'm sure they were having some thoughts that he would much rather not know about. Alice and Rose then began holding up lingerie for me to look at. I knew my face had to be bright red. I couldn't imagine picking out that kind of stuff on my own, much less with Edward standing right next to me.

Alice and Rosalie finally seemed to give up on me giving them much of a response and just decided to choose for me. Alice waved me away and I turned to Edward hoping that this might be my chance to go home for good.

Edward seemed to know what I was thinking and quickly ushered me out of the store and back to his car. I sank down into the seat as we drove back home. I couldn't wait to get into bed and go to sleep for a few hours.

When we arrived at the house, Edward unloaded everything from the trunk while I trudged my way inside. He had everything unloaded and put away before I had even reached the first step on the staircase. Edward swiftly picked me up in his arms and rushed upstairs.

He laid me down gently on his bed and covered me with the blanket before climbing in beside me. I yawned as I settled down into the soft bedding getting even more comfortable.

As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about how tiring today was. I couldn't wait until I became a vampire like the rest of my family so that I would be able to keep up with them. Of course, that would mean that I would be privy to even more of their crazy antics. Whatever crazy things they'll come up with in the future, the Cullens were my family and I cherished them for that.


End file.
